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ANU to help Canberra become Australia's innovation capital

7 November 2014

The Australian National University (ANU) will play a leading role in driving Canberra towards becoming Australia’s “Innovation Capital”, according to ANU Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Michael Cardew-Hall.

The ANU has become a Founding Member of the CBR Innovation Network (CBRIN), launched by the ACT Government on Friday, and will contribute $50,000 per year to the project for the next five years.

“Through CBRIN we hope to create an innovation ecosystem that sits around the ANU in the same way that Silicon Valley sits around Stanford University,” said Professor Cardew-Hall, who will sit on the board for the Network.

“It will create an environment that grows companies in the Canberra region, which will hopefully one day sponsor future ANU research.”

The Network will provide support to innovative businesses and entrepreneurs.

Professor Cardew-Hall hopes the initiative will also help facilitate commercial translation of the University’s world leading research.

“If there are entrepreneurs on campus, whether they be staff or students, it allows an environment where they can take their ideas forward,” he said.

“As we go further down this track it will help demonstrate the impact ANU research can have economically and socially.”

ANU will support the network through internal programs such boot camps to help entrepreneurs build a business plan, the Innovation ACT Business planning competition and ANU Connect Ventures which can provide up to $1 million in seed funding for start-up businesses.

The Foundation Members of the Network are the ANU, University of Canberra, National ICT Australia (NICTA), CSIRO and UNSW (Canberra) as Foundation Members.